She is the beauty of a starlit night. Full of Grace and free of sin, she has been the devotion of kings and peasants alike, as well as the middle class of the 1950s. Men and women in all generations will call her blessed, because he who is mighty has done great things for her. To call her blessed is in accordance with scripture. To not do so makes you yet another anti-Christ, no matter how many times you rant, "Praise the Lord."

August 20, 2013

Christians are afraid to leave their homes in Egypt

A leading Egyptian
bishop said that many Christians, especially in the worst affected area of
Upper Egypt's Minya province, havebecome too afraid to leave their homes, onaccount of a 48-hour anti-Christian rampage orchestrated by supporters of ousted Presi-dent
Mohammed Morsi.

In speaking with the Catholic
charity, Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), Coptic Catholic Bishop Kyrillos
William of Assiut called on Western governments to work with Egypt's new regime, in defeating extremists responsi-ble for the wave of terrorism which targeted nearly 80 churches and other Coptic centers.

Coptic Catholic Bishop
Joannes Zakariadescribed how he was saved by police who stopped
Islamists from setting fire to his Luxor home, during the wave of violence which
has paralyzed the region’s Christian community, comprising its bishop, priests, sisters and the laity; even to the point ofpreventing them from leaving their homes.

In describing how, since August 13, almost 80 churches, convents, schools, clinics, and other centers were hit, Bishop William criti-cized the West
for neglecting to acknowledge the scale of unprovoked attacks on harmless communities by Mr. Morsi’s supporters.

The bishop said, “The
Western governments are speaking about human rights.Yes, these groups have a
right to demonstrate, but not with arms. The Western governments do not see the
reality of what is going on here. A group of terror-ists
have used arms against us. [Western governments] should not be support-ing
this.”

While speaking from Assiut,
Bishop William added, “They [Muslim Brothers]

think that the Christians were the
cause of Morsi being ousted. But Christians were not alone: there were 35
million who went on the streets against Morsi. Christians are being
punished. We have been scapegoated.”

He stressed that, in
spite of repeated efforts, including those of Western governments to encourage
the Muslim Brotherhood to en-gage in dialogue, the Islamist movement responded with violence.

His comments coincided a statement issued by Alexandria's Coptic Catholic Patriarch, Ibrahim Sidrak, where within he said that... “our free, strong and conscious support for all state institutions, particularly the Armed Forces and police, for
all their efforts in protecting our homeland.”

Both he and Bishop
William high lighted how many Muslims had stood shoulder-to-shoulder with
Christians in defending churches and other Coptic buildings from attack. Bishop William said:
“Our people are close to normal Muslims, moderate Muslims. When the
fundamentalists came for the Christians in [Assiut’s] Old Town, the Muslims
sent them away using arms. In other cities,
Christians and Muslims came to protect churches and they stayed next to the
churches all day.”

He said that many
Muslims shared the Christians’ view that there should be a clear separation
between religion and the state. Many bishops
underlined how the attacks of last week came as a surprise. Bishop William said,
“We had expected some re-sponse [from the Muslim Brothers], but not to this
degree of brutality.”

In Luxor, Bishop
Joannes Zakaria told ACN how an Islamic
protest turned ugly, on the 16th of August, when extremists tried to break into the bishop’s house
and set fire to it. However, members of the armed forces intervened “and saved us, thanks be to God.”

He said that all the
churches were now closed, adding, “I, the bishop, the priests, the Sisters and
the people cannot move [about]. We keep staying in our homes to be saved from
any kind of violence.” The bishop said that
both in Luxor and in outer villages, “some” churches and homes of Christians were set on fire and that some Christian-run shops were destroyed. He added that in
Dabbiah, a vil-lage close to Luxor, five Christians and one Muslim had been
killed. All of the bishops
appealed for prayers.

In a message to ACN,
Bishop Zakaria said, “We are happy to be suffering and to be victims and to
lose our churches and our homes and our livelihood to save Egypt for the
Christians and the Muslims.We need the prayer of
everybody to solve our problems. It is the future of our children that we are
concerned about so that good Christians and Muslims can live alongside each
other.”____________________________________________________________________

Aid to the Church in Need was founded in the ruins of WWII, during the Christmas
of 1947. It's chain of command literary begins with the Chair of Peter and it's the
Catholic Church's version of the historic Marshall Plan. As the title indicates, its
clientele are those in need ... sometimes in immediate need.

If you wish to be part of the ACN mission, even in something as simple as donating
Mass stipends, feel free to contact Michael Varenne at michael@churchinneed.org.
You're also welcomed to contact ACN via:

patrickpontillo@aol.com

My sites are counterweights for a Disinformation Age overrun by manipulative liars. The objective is to be a catalyst in righting wrongs.

I actually did earn academic honors in economics, as well as in foreign languages and accounting, even to the point of being inducted into the Phi Sigma Iota honors fraternity. .

I've been published along side laureates and even have literature on a Harvard library shelf, at Northwestern Univ, and a few other places.

Living in the city taught me that city folk naturally hone their people skills and are far more friendly than country folk. In fact, country folk can be inarticulate, ornery, and clannish, in their shot-gun territorialism.

Added profile information in Jpeg form can be found at the the Blue Marble Album and at Google Plus, both of which are linked below.